BOULDER -- Boulder County commissioners appointed former Louisville mayor Chuck Sisk to the Regional Transportation District's board of directors on Tuesday morning.

Sisk was the Board of County Commissioners' choice to fill the RTD's District O seat being vacated by John Tayer, who's resigned to focus on his job as president and chief executive officer of the Boulder Chamber.

Sisk, a partner in a Boulder law firm, was one of 15 people who applied last month for the Board of County Commissioners' appointment and one of three finalists the commissioners interviewed last Wednesday.

The other finalists were former Boulder mayor Susan Osborne and former Boulder deputy mayor Spense Havlick.

"I have tremendous admiration for Susan Osborne and Spense Havlick," Sisk said in a Tuesday afternoon telephone interview. "I'm honored that the commissioners chose me."

At Tuesday's public business meeting, Commissioners Cindy Domenico, Deb Gardner and Elise Jones separately applauded the experiences and qualifications of all three finalists.

Jones initially moved that the county board appoint Osborne to the post, but neither Gardner nor Domenico seconded that motion.

Jones then moved that the board appoint Sisk. Gardner seconded that motion, and all three commissioners voted for it.

The District O seat on the 15-member RTD board represents a Boulder County area that includes Boulder, Louisville, Superior, Lyons, Hygiene, Niwot and Gunbarrel, as well as parts of Longmont southwest of Mountain View Avenue and Hover Street.

Sisk said it's "vitally important" to provide representation for all the communities in District O, including Longmont, which he said "has been under-served since we got FasTracks passed" in 2004.

Sisk was to formally take his seat on Tuesday night, at the start of an RTD board meeting in Denver.

Also on Tuesday night, the transit agency's board was scheduled to consider approving a contract with HNTB Corporation, a Denver business selected to serve as the consultant for a $2 million RTD-funded Northwest Area Mobility Study that's expected to set priorities for future transit and transportation improvements in the northwest metropolitan Denver region served by the agency, including Boulder County.

Sisk said he's looking forward to that study, it's possibilities for reevaluating the transit services being provided or planned for north metro and northwest metro Denver areas, and the opportunity for communities in those areas to step forward and tell what's important to them.

"I really relish the opportunity to be involved in this regional planning," he said.

Sisk can serve on in the District O seat through the end of next year, the remainder of the current four-year term to which Tayer was re-elected in 2010. The seat, a nonpartisan post, will be up for election again in November 2014.

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